Smitty's Family Restaurant - Parksville — Restaurant in Parksville

Cannot share how disappointed I was with our most recent visit. Caustic, unattentive service, poorly prepared food, just a horrible experience.

My family and I were looking forward to visiting Smitty's in Parksville. The experience that we were expecting is not what we got.

It is with a heavy heart that I share this review. I support servers and restaurants, especially considering the added stress that the pandemic has brought.

However, our experience today was unacceptable. I have been a server, I know when lines have been crossed.

First, we had to fight to get attention from our server. From any server. To get cream. To refill our beverages. The coffee ran cold before the cream arrived. The cups sat empty for over 10 minutes before someone even walked by.

My daughter and I ordered eggs benny - a special treat after an especially hard week. Benny, poached medium, with shredded hashbrowns.

The food arrived, and with anticipation we both dove into our hashbrowns. They were ice cold and oily, sprinkled with burnt green onions.

Then we cut into our bennies, expecting that familiar sunny yolk to pour out or at least shine through. But they were overcooked, dry and hard.

I was upset, but hate to cause a fuss. But my partner knew this was a special meal, and decided he would see if they would remake.

When he brought this up with our server, she noticeably was uncomfortable, but we worked our way through to a resolution. Because we were so far through our meal, I asked if they could just remake the hashbrowns, to which our server agreed. My partner made a comment in the end, reminding them that the hashbrowns should be hot.

I will admit, his tone was slightly biting. That is him on his best days, and I understand that the server picked up on this.

But instead of working past it, trying to win a customer, she very loudly escalated the situation and turned the situation from uncomfortable to unbearable. She scolded him, embarassed our table horribly, making my daughter, who struggles with anxiety, recoil into a state that she hours later cannot snap out of.

The server did give our table a discount. But no apology, nor an attempt to address the situation, nor an attempt better it .

It has put such a horrible spin on our day, has made my daughter afraid to dine out, and has solidified our not ever wanting to step foot back in the Parksville...

Our family of four, consisting of two adults and two children, visited a family restaurant in Parksville for breakfast during our stay in the town for a few nights. Though the hostess was friendly, the same could not be said of our server. When we needed some time to decide on our order, the server became visibly annoyed and even rolled her eyes before walking away. After we finally gave her our orders, the food arrived without any problem, but we were left waiting for water for 15 minutes. However, things took a turn for the worse when my partner discovered hair in his dish, causing him to lose his appetite. When he informed the server and waited an unreasonable amount of time, we ended up flagging her down ourselves, and she took away the dish without any apologies and asked if he wanted another plate he agreed and a while later the hostess came back with his plate but it was only half the portion size of the original dish. There was no offer of compensation, such as a discount, like most restaurants would accommodate. To make matters worse, she rarely checked on our table during the meal to see if any of us needed any refills or check-in and ask how our food was, or if we needed anything. We had to seek help from other people and our server wasn't busy. We also noticed a disturbing buzzing sound coming from a corner of our booth, which grew louder. My children, who are sensitive to loud noises, were unable to bear it, we left. The whole experience was unpleasant and left us...

Seeing as the coffee shop across the street was busy I decided to head to Smitty’s to pass the time while I waited for my car to be repaired. I haven’t been to a Smitty’s in close to 30 years and I don’t remember them being any good back then so I didn’t go in with any expectations. I ordered their lunch special - roast beef sandwich. My mistake. I should have ordered eggs or something that is on their regular menu. So when the waitress asked me how the food was, I had to think about it.... compared to most restaurants it was horrible. But based on the fact that this was a Smitty’s I figured it was on par for what I expected so I said it was... “okay” but really... who would settle for a just “okay”? She walked away and then after a while dropped off a bill without saying a word. The sandwich sat there untouched for nearly an hour. Now granted this is not a Michelin star restaurant. But I would expect that you would check in on your table if the food sat there untouched for an hour. So I got up and left. Not a word about the food or service or anything was spoken. Just two eyes over a masked face handing over a credit card terminal.

So about the food. The roast beef was cut with the grain and hardened like jerky. The onions were well undercooked. But my main concern was how the gravy had congealed and had large dark semi...